I have some panny b cells with 400 or more cycles that still hit over 3300 mah. Never seen anything like it with other cells. My opus only charges to 4.13 and I usually keep the charge rate at 500. Having 5 chargers makes it easy to charge alot of cells at a low mah. There are charts up showing. If you charge the panny b only to 93 percent. and not below 3.2 volts you can get over 7000 cycles out of them and the lower you go such as 88 percent it almost doubled.
Here it is. It’s 6 percent to 94 percent gets 7500 cycles no wonder Tesla first used these cells.
So according to the article if 4.15 is 90 percent charged and my opus charges to 4.13 that would put my panny b cells in the 15,000 cycle range. In theory I highly doubt it. But at over 400 500 cycles they still test new. I test them once a year and put a label on them with the capacity and date. So there are many factors that go into cycle life. I must add my panny b the 12 I have are on power bank duty only and have been for 95 percent of their life so they never see over a 1.5 amp discharge. And never discharged under 3volts under load or 3.2 volts unloaded.
FWIW, my little brother gave me his ~2004 Sony VAIO laptop and the battery pack was shot, he had a second one and both had 2002 Sony 2000mAh jobbies in them and they’re all at about ~1500mAh at 1A on my BT-3400 v. 2.2.
Can’t say how many cycles were on those packs, but yeah…16 years and they still work fine in my 2.8A Convoy lights on medium and low.
Other than those, it’s just two 5As for my D1S and D4.
When you look at it.
The majority of ALL good cells have Panasonic internals.
When I first started on this hobby I opened up my 2 x old laptop battery packs. One LG one Sony.
all 12 are still ticking over but rated 21\2200mAh ea.
ALl the cells I’ve bought new,have been Panasonic18650B.
They’re rated 34\500? and work in all torches I have.
Button and flat top.
Soshine 26650 5500mAh,
and Soshine 14500 Li-Ions. For a coupla Ultrafire 68’s and a
Jetbeam Jet1 MK Pro. (Magic little light)
The “fire” battery’s seem to be like the older Mobile phone’s,
Charge daily if using or battery flattens on you.
.
Panasonics are in almost all battery’s worth having. why bother buying different brands. Just go to the origins of.
I have a coupla three (came with torches) “fire” battery’s. they sit in back of drawer, and in torches in bedside cupboards.
They don’t really matter there.
ANY torch I take out has Panasonic in it with spare in pocket.
My little Soshine 14500 Li-Ions seem ok too. I haven’t seen any Pana’s in that size so far?.
We’re now in interesting ‘flashlight’ times, even compared to 4-6 years back. Now we have lights regularly pulling 7A-20A and Panasonic really doesn’t offer ‘high drain’ cells like I’m referencing.
The NCR-B is good for 5A, the NCR-GA is good for 10A, but if you have a light that demands 10A, you’re running that NCR-GA at its limits and one shouldn’t expect a maximum amount of cycles.
Enter the 30Q, 25R, VTC-5/VTC-5A, LG HEx, et. al, all of which can handle 15A comfortably.
Always match the cell to the load and buy accordingly and always leave a little ‘headroom’.
I have some old Sony cells as well laptop pulls that still chug along. They don’t get used much. When a cell really drops below 1700 1800 I send it to recycling. They were actually laptop pulls someone used then sold to someone else who used them. Then passed them on to me. They’ve been used from north to south of the country. Only 1 of 4 the I recycled. Hit 1600 mah. No use for me. Good cells are free just have to have a little testicular fortitude at the hardware stores. I’ve been Ran off plenty of times. And I’ll hold the packs up to them and walk out. They can’t arrest me for taking a product that’s not for sale. Sometimes I’ll say my brother dropped off the wrong pack and I’m getting it back. But I always walk in with a shopping bag and stuff to put in the recycle bin. So I can look for a minute and see if there is anything without raising suspicion. And I’ll wait until they start dealing with a return customer. It’s always by the return desk. Except best buy. I was digging in there and some guy came up and said can I help you. I said no I don’t need help thanks though. He didn’t know what to say. He said you can’t do this. I saif I take the packs and build stuff with it for the robotics dept at the community college. He said we’ll you have to get it approved through managmennt. I said they won’t ever go for it. I’ll just keep digging in here from time to time. And said I found everything worth keeping already. Held up my shopping bag like I dare you to take it. And walked out
At Lowe’s home depot etc. When they change out the displays they have to recycle the packs. I use to work at Lowe’s. And customers returns are put in the bin.
But high drain cells from I’ve seen just don’t last as long with heavy use. But it goes back to the other factors. Charge rate, discharge rate, dod. Etc.
Ya I’m a vaper. Mostly a alien. At around 23amps and 3.3 volts. But unless your using a mech it won’t let you fire under 3.2 under load. So your cells never see under 3.4 or so. Which is perfect for cycle life. I mostly use 20r. I’ve found so many 20r from recycle bins out of tool packs brand new. And they can pump out 22 amps each. They last me all day at work. Hitting it pretty good.
This thread is a few weeks old but I thought I would mention that I’ve been calculating Wh/kg and Wh/cm^3 for tons of batteries lately and the Samsung INR18650-35E has the best capacity per volume while the Efest IMR18650 3500mAh has the best capacity per weight (however the samsung is extremely close)
The samsung 35E cells are a lot cheaper though, from what I could find. Either of these two batteries will be excellent, just depends on what you can afford or what is available in your area.
Ampsplus INR18650 3500mAh also did extremely well in capacity per kg but is hard to find a place that sells them.
I’ll be posting all my data in a few days or weeks for those interested.